Building on week of events

The Engineering Council and more than 30 clubs affiliated with
The College of Engineering hosted a series of events last week
during National Engineers Week.

“Engineers Week is a national celebration that’s celebrated
between all sorts of colleges and national corporations just to
celebrate what engineering is and what we [engineers] do for
society,” said Jessica Byrd, engineering council activities
coordinator.

This year for E-week there was a whole series of scheduled
events all with the theme, “Enginerd: Embrace the nerd in you.”
Students were encouraged to participate in events from Feb. 21 to
Feb. 25 and remember why they like engineering.

“This is my first year participating and I’m planning it, but
everyone has told me that it’s bigger and better than it was last
year so that makes me feel good,” said Byrd.

Last Tuesday there was a club carnival with 18 clubs
participating in a variety of food sales and activities. The clubs
had displays and demonstrations for some of the projects they are
working on.

The American Society of Mechanical Engineers had a place set up
for fixing bikes, which proved to be both practical for the many
students who ride their bikes around campus and beneficial for the
club members to test their skills.

AeroVironment, Parsons and the Marines were at the club carnival
supporting engineering along with campus programs such as the
Career Center, Associated Students Inc. and the Student Alumni
Association.

“Tuesday [the Engineering Meadow] was packed all the way down
[with] just fun games and activities, things to remind engineering
students how fun engineering is,” said Andrea Ferris, Engineering
Council president. “There was an airplane dart game where the
students tried to drop a dart onto a map of Cal Poly [San Luis
Obispo]. If you hit a building you got free candy or a prize of
some sort.”

Thursday there was an E-week bowl where 10 clubs competed for
points that counted toward the overall score of E-week. The bowl
consisted of an academic competition with three club members on
each of the 10 teams answering academic questions for the first
half, and competing in a sling shot water balloon competition and a
tin foil boat design competition for the second half.

“It shows how people can just make stuff up and how good they
are on their feet,” said Adam Sharp, a fifth-year mechanical
engineering student and member of the American Society of
Mechanical Engineers. “We’ve done stuff kind of like this in our
club meetings. It’s kind of cool to see the different designs and
stuff; how different they are.”

The American Society of Civil Engineers had a large turnout, as
they had encouraged club members to come to the E-bowl with the
incentive of free food and ended up taking first place in the
competition.

Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers were second
place winners and Engineers Without Borders took third place in the
E-bowl.

With elections for next year’s Engineering Council coming up on
March 8, the Engineering Council sought to promote what they do by
speaking to students at their booth and selling engineering items
such as T-shirts and pens.

At night there was Engineers Pack The Stands at the men’s and
women’s basketball games along with Faculty Appreciation Night
where Felipe Perez from Civil Engineering and William Davis Jr.
from Industrial & Manufacturing Engineering were both
celebrated for their contributions to engineering.

The Ultimate Frisbee tournament that was scheduled for Saturday
was rescheduled for this Saturday due to the weather.

During all the events, engineering students were competing in
Penny Wars, a competition between the different engineering
departments that all went toward raising money for St. Jude
Children’s Research Hospital.

Organizers of E-week sought to remind students of the fun
involved in engineering and to show that engineering is not an
exclusive community. Ferris said there are non-engineering
students, such as business, math and computer science students who
also get involved in engineering clubs.

“It’s not intended to be a cliquish-type society,” said Ferris.
“Anybody is welcome, anybody who wants to be involved, anybody who
wants to learn how to weld, how to build a car ” they’re
welcome.”